Adrian Matejka

Adrian Matejka was born in Nuremberg, Germany, and grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. Matejka served as Poet Laureate of the state of Indiana in 2018–19, and he became the editor of Poetry magazine in 2022.

Matejka is the author of several collections of poetry, including: Somebody Else Sold the World (Penguin, 2021), a finalist for the 2022 UNT Rilke Prize; Map to the Stars (Penguin, 2017); The Big Smoke (Penguin, 2013), winner of the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and a finalist for a National Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and a Pulitzer Prize in poetry; Mixology (Penguin, 2009), a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series; and The Devil’s Garden (Alice James Books, 2003), winner of a New York / New England Award. His mixed media project Standing on the Verge & Maggot Brain, inspired by Funkadelic and created in collaboration with Nicholas Galanin and Kevin Neireiter, was published in 2021 by Third Man Books. His first graphic novel, Last On His Feet, was published in 2023 by Liveright.

Matejka earned an MFA at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and is a graduate of Indiana University Bloomington, where he went on to serve as a Ruth Lilly Professor of Poetry. Matejka’s honors include a Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award, a Pushcart Prize, and a Julia Peterkin Award, as well as fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and a Simon Fellowship from United States Artists.